A couple of weeks ago, Dave Mashburn wrote a series of blogs to help you increase your success when interviewing new real estate candidates.  If you have not had a chance to read these yet (1, 2, 3), I would encourage you to do so—there is a lot of great information packed into these discussions.

This appears to be an issue that bedevils a lot of people.  I spoke with a real estate owner just last week who was struggling with the issue of convincing a candidate to come on board while she was simultaneously considering an offer made by his competitor. 

In this case, the competitor had done a great job of framing the decision around the fee structure (i.e. the overhead) necessary to be part of a real estate office.  Since the competitor was the low cost option in this category, the candidate was leaning toward joining the competitor’s office.

At this point, most hiring managers will tend to be on their heels.  How do you convince a candidate to get his/her focus off of the minor issue of fees and consider the bigger picture?  That is, without sounding defensive?

Try asking questions.  Not just any questions, but questions that are designed to move the discussion from a conflict between you and the candidate, to a conflict that exists only in the candidate’s brain.  Ideally, you want to facilitate the discussion that the candidate is having with herself until the conflict is resolved.

This isn’t as hard as you may think.  Business consultant, Steve Roesler, recently offered some simple insight that I think is helpful on this topic.

“When you keep announcing the righteousness of your position, the problem defines you.  When you respond with a question, both of you begin defining the problem and looking for solutions.  Which do you want?

Here are four model questions that will help you stay above the fray:  

• ‘If this doesn’t meet your requirements (criteria, needs), what can be done to ensure that it does?’
• ‘If you like the idea but not the related cost, what can we do about the budget constraints?’
• ‘If we can’t start the project now, when do you think it would be a good time to get it going?’
• ‘If you don’t want to change anything and think the procedures are fine the way they are, what is it that you like about how they work now?’

You get the idea.  The first part of the question acknowledges that you heard the issue;  the second invites action from the other person.  That way, you stay out of ‘argument’ mode and create an environment where the responsibility for a solution is a mutual effort.”

Try crafting some questions that address the objections your candidates will likely bring up.  Practice saying them a few times before your interview so that they don’t sound canned.  And then give it a try.  Maybe you’ll be successful at tapping your inner psychologist!